Compressors are machines that act on a working fluid, for example, to distribute the working fluid under pressure to a process line. Compressors may include rotary compressors, centrifugal compressors, etc. Examples of process lines may be found in various applications including chemical, water-treatment, petro-chemical, resource recovery and delivery, refinery, and like sectors and industries.
Rotary-style compressors include devices that have a housing that forms a chamber with an inlet and an outlet. Inside of the chamber, the devices often have a pair of elements; conventionally these elements embody one or more large lobed-impellers that mesh with one another. In use, the lobed-impellers rotate in opposite directions to displace a known quantity of fluid from the inlet to the outlet. As a pump, the device actively rotates the elements to facilitate movement of the fluid from the inlet to the outlet of the chamber. On the other hand, as a meter, the device is configured for the flow of working fluid to act on the elements. The force of the fluid causes the elements to rotate, which in turn can generate an output (e.g., an electrical signal) that reflects one or more characteristics of the fluid flow.
It is known that use of the lobed-impellers can generate significant pressure and flow pulses during operation of the rotary-style compressor. These flow pulses can resonate downstream and, in turn, induce vibrations of a magnitude that is often significant enough to damage equipment found downstream of the compressor and/or to generate noise at levels that are unsatisfactory even for industrial settings.
Remediation of the problems with flow pulses typically seeks to dissipate energy at the inlet and/or the outlet of the compressor. The solutions often employ noise reduction devices (e.g., silencers) to attenuate sound waves and like perturbations in the working fluid. These devices utilize elements (e.g., baffles) in different arrangements to modify the direction (and other aspects) of the flow of working fluid and, thus, effectively reduce noise and vibrations. Unfortunately, in most conventional implementations, the silencers mount to the exterior of the machinery. This configuration elongates the overall footprint of the machinery, sometimes by as much as 400% or more.